Beetroot and rose pancakes, other orange blossom and spirulina pancakes, or bowls tofu with jasmine sauce are just examples of what you can order at The Flower Bar & Coffee Shop, the new space in Faro where the entire menu is inspired by flowers.
Cristina Monteiro is 36 years old and until about a year and a half ago she worked as a dentist, but her entrepreneurial spirit, which grew along with that of her husband, Rui Sequeira, made her leave that profession to dedicate herself full time to the life of an entrepreneur.
During the pandemic, Cristina saw flowers as a “refuge” to overcome that difficult phase and began to make arrangements.
Despite the fact that, in 2020, she was still working full time as a dentist, Cristina was helping her husband at the Alameda restaurant, who, for a few months, had to bet on the takeaway, like most establishments in this sector.
In May 2020, it decided, as part of Mother's Day, to embellish the menus with branches. «I arranged the flowers, dried them and then I purposely made the arrangements for that menu. People liked it so much that they started asking me for more», he tells Sul Informação.
The requests led to the birth of, in June 2020, the The Flower Bar, only as an online page, which allowed people to order bouquets and ceramics.
«The first ceramics started out for resale, but now they are made by three artisans from the north of the country who work for us», he explains, noting that he started with vases, but the brand is now adding other pieces.
From the online page, which today already has almost 60 thousand followers, The Flower Bar traveled, last year, to a island at Mar Shopping Algarve, which quickly became too small.
«The dynamics in a Shopping it is always more complex. We always had to replenish the product at night and the capacity at that island it was very limited. Sometimes, I had to go there twice and then I started to think that I had to open a bigger space, but that also added one of my other passions, restoration».
A «light» space, «with healthy meals» and «where people feel they can be creative» was what Cristina wanted to give The Flower Bar & Coffee Shop, which opened in June, on Rua Ataíde de Oliveira, in Faro.
In this space, where people can also buy The Flower Bar products and Cristina The Brand bikinis, there is also space for other brands to exhibit their products.
«I, more than anyone, know how difficult it was to reach the point of having my own space and I believe that this can also be a showcase of visibility for other Portuguese craft brands».
In this «living store», as Cristina likes to call it, «everything has the soul of flowers, which was the motto for the entire project».
«We have a Nordic-inspired salad with salmon and rose sauce, a Portuguese salad with lavender sauce and chicken, another more Asian one with jasmine sauce. And then we also have the pancakes, which also have flowers», he emphasizes.
The Flower Bar & Coffee Shop is open from 9:00 am to 19:30 pm.
Cristina, from Trás-os-Montes living in Faro 11 years ago, and Rui Sequeira, from the Algarve, currently own four restaurants in Faro: Alameda, which opened in 2019, Monky, in 2021, Karpa and now The Flower Bar & Coffee Shop, both born in 2023.
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